Short Relief

Long Relief: Ranking the 1993 Baseball Card Designs

Patrick: Comrades, I assemble you once again to fulfill your divine mandate: to assess and rank the aesthetic value of various early nineties baseball cards. Last year, as you may recall, we explored the year 1990, an era of reckless youth and posturing. Moving forward three years, things have changed. Still riding the hobby’s bubble,...

Short Relief: Foot Into Mouth

by Matt Sussman, Sydney Bergman, and Sara Novic 8/31

On August 26, Ruben Alaniz was called upon to finish the ninth inning for his Durham Bulls against the Norfolk Tides. It was a four-run lead, so it wasn’t a save situation, and therefore not too much pressure. His catcher, Andrew Moore, a major league veteran for parts of nine seasons, dug in to start...

Short Relief: To Fans, To Make Much of Time

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Roger Cormier, and Zack Moser 8/30

Chris Carpenter touched first base and the Cardinals exploded in a firestorm, springing around the field like children at a party on a hot summer’s day. Ryan Howard crumpled on the first base line. One swing ended all his hopes of restoring himself as the player he once was. I wondered if anyone noticed. My...

Short Relief: Membership Terms and Conditions

by Nathan Bishop, Matt Ellis, and Justin Klugh 8/29

As a thirty-something father of two, I spend a lot of time sharing. Sharing space, sharing money, but most of all, sharing time. I’m a personality easily overwhelmed by stimuli and socializing, and well, parenting supplies a large dose of both of those things. The usual social retreats — video games, exercise, drinking alone in...

Short Relief: Signatures, Speech, and Spontaneous Standing

by Mary Craig, Patrick Dubuque, and Kate Preusser 8/28

In my room at my parents’ house, there’s a bookcase devoted less to books than various autographed baseball memorabilia, from balls to bats to… a few books. I’ve received few by my own hand; most arrived as gifts. If not for the authentication cards accompanying them, I wouldn’t be able to discern the names scribbled...

Short Relief: Linked by Blood

by RJ McDaniel and Jason Wojciechowski 8/27

For some reason, I’ve found myself reading a lot about the 2004 World Series — specifically, the aftermath of the 2004 World Series. The way fans reacted to it, the way Boston media reacted to it, all the stuff people did to celebrate over the winter and into the beginning of the next season. Maybe...

Short Relief: The Beginnings of Things

by Matt Ellis, Matt Sussman, and Patrick Dubuque 8/24

I didn’t stay to see them close the roof. Not like those first years, inchoate, with open mouth and wide eyes. It was a ritual at the end of each and every game: Strauss’ theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey would begin to echo over a crowd whispering their oohs and ahhs, and then once...

Short Relief: Pride and Prejudice

by RJ McDaniel and Kate Preusser 8/23

I am constantly in awe of the way the human body can adapt. The way that, given repeated exposure to certain fear-inducing stimuli, it will become so alert to the possibility of attack that it can signal danger even when distracted. I can walk down a mostly empty street at night, my music playing as...

Short Relief: Umbral Ash

by Justin Klugh and Nathan Bishop 8/22

With the success of the Little League Classic and the outpouring of support both it and the LLWS received this year, changing baseball at the Major League level, the one through which we largely absorb it, becomes an annual conversation. Each year, we gush over the event in Williamsport and ask each other, “Can you...

Short Relief: The Art of Storytelling

by Kate Preusser, Mary Craig, and Patrick Dubuque 8/21

Go to a game, and it’s not uncommon to see an MLB player having a catch with some lucky young fan in the stands: Aaron Judge and Mike Trout have both been photographed doing it, in the tradition of Nick Swisher and David Wright before them. It’s a charming piece of baseball arcana, another reminder...

Short Relief: Something’s Missing

by Zack Moser, Jason Wojciechowski, and RJ McDaniel 8/20

“You know I’ll never see Wrigley Field anymore, before my eternal rest…” – Steve Goodman * * * Last weekend, I returned to Wrigley Field for the first time since 2015. In the three years since, I’ve moved to Boston, cycled through several jobs, started writing for Short Relief, and entered a relationship long enough...

Short Relief: Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Matt Sussman, and Sara Novic 8/17

My brother-in-law Tom Stofka was gentle and kind. He loved the outdoors, earning an advanced degree in forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tom probably should have spent his life climbing trees, but somehow he wound up working for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. By the time of his untimely death,...

Long Relief: Dissecting the Bat Flip

by BP Staff 8/16

Patrick: Thank you all for convening on such short notice, but we have an important issue to attend to. It seems that one David Bote hit a golden ultimate game-winning walk-off supernatural superserious grand slam and then later apologized for flipping his bat on the play. Before we judge Bote on his individual crimes, however, allow...

Short Relief: Slipping, Falling, Can’t Give Up

by Mary Craig, Patrick Dubuque, and Kate Preusser 8/14

In 1794, the newly formed Commonwealth of Pennsylvania codified a law that had existed in spirit since 1682. As part of a series of similar laws collectively known as the “Blue Laws,” this particular one made illegal the performance of “any worldly employment or business whatsoever on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday … or...

Short Relief: Bound to Age

by Holly M Wendt and RJ McDaniel 8/13

On the west-bound edge of the turn lane, covers splayed and pages waving, a book. Some traffic-based injury—or the hands that jettisoned the book—dislodged a small chunk of pages, which lay a little more centered in the lane. What was knowable about the book in the few seconds it was visible as I drove by?...

Short Relief: Bad Days and Good Luck

by Matt Sussman and Sara Novic 8/10

I don’t talk about myself with as much vivacity as my fellow Short Relievers because, well, I just don’t. Keeping retaining walls around myself is part defense mechanism, part security blanket, formed from years of Being Online. But Monday I had a bad day at work. Because… well, no reason to get into it! I...